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Geohex Findings to be Presented at AMPP Conference and Expo

Mon, 21 February, 2022

Findings from the Geohex Project are due to be presented at AMPP’s annual conference and expo in San Antonio, Texas.

TWI principal project leader, Imran Bhamji will present the presentation, ‘Advanced Materials for Condensing Heat Transfer’ as part of the ‘Geothermal Scaling and Corrosion’ session, on 8 March 2022.

The presentation, which investigates work conducted by Imran, alongside TWI colleagues Shiladitya Paul, Alan Taylor, Anna Wojdyla-Cieslak, and Garima Mittal from Leicester University and the Materials Innovation Centre (MATIC), will offer information on the design and fabrication of superhygrophobic materials.

These superhygrophobic materials, surfaces or coatings, promoting dropwise condensation, rather than film-forming, is expected to give rise to next generation, high efficiency designs.

Imran will speak on the design and fabrication of nanoscale metal oxides using a materials-by-design approach to enhance the properties of conventional hygrophobic coatings. These novel superhygrophobic coatings consisted of a polysiloxane matrix that provides an inherently water repellent film and functionalised silica nanoparticles to provide bottom-up roughness.

The coatings were applied to aluminum, copper, carbon steel and stainless steel substrates, as part of the project.

In addition, there will be a presentation on 10 March 2022 as part of the ‘Thermal and Cold Spray Coatings,’ detailing, ‘Suspension-High Velocity Oxy-Fuel Spray Tio2 Coatings and Their Corrosion Behaviour.’

This presentation, which will be given by TWI research and product development programme manager Shiladitya Paul will detail work undertaken by TWI and the University of Leicester to investigate high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spray coatings deposited on carbon steel substrate. Ceramic coatings are often used as a barrier to protect metal surfaces against corrosion, such as titanium dioxide, which is used for a wide range of applications including solar cells, self-cleaning, air purification and biomedical applications.

In this work, TiO2 nanoparticles was used as a feedstock material, and sprayed at two different flowrates and morphological analysis of the developed coatings was conducted using scanning electron microscope. In order to understand the wetting behaviour, roughness profile, adhesion and scratch resistance of the coatings, drop size analyser, profilometer, adhesion and scratch tests were performed, with further samples immersed into 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution to compare the corrosion behavior of both coatings.

About AMPP

The five-day AMPP Annual Conference and Expo brings together the former CORROSION and Coatings+ events to provide a programme of technical symposia, forums, workshops, standards and administrative meetings, along with a student poster session, networking events and a full exposition that includes a large equipment display.

You can find out more about the AMPP Annual Conference and Expo here.